5 comments:

Yes Father, good article and perhaps a sign of more balanced journalism. But the venomous onslaught and attempts to silence and marginalize the Holy Father cannot be maintained. Sooner or later it takes on the aura of ‘protesting too much’ and the attempt to bring down the Church smacks of what The Bard called: “Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls upon the other”.

Aside from the usual journalistic love of a sensational story invariably involving reporting ad nauseam on a massive scandal, there are two issues here. First, the Church is being judged by today's standards on events that in many (but not all) cases occured decades ago, when there was, I think, widespread disbelief that such horrendous acts could take place, which I suppose explains the reported frequent dismissals of many chidren's complaints. Second and perhaps more important, there is a general perception today that if on the one hand a lay person were discovered to be a paedophile, the full weight of the law would rightly come down on them like a ton of bricks, on the other hand the Church's past actions in dealing with its own (through prayer, counselling, moving to different parishes, etc) somehow makes it above the law. As in the business world, whenever there is wrongdoing, the buck invariably stops with the person at the top, especially if they are not seen to be reacting quickly or firmly enough. As the old saying goes, truth never got in the way of a good story, but the Church has to get on the front foot by visibly taking firm actions to deal with people who would not be allowed to be teachers or in other positions of responsibility involving children.